There's a Website For That
by Wordsplat
Summary: A year after Steve's own unfreezing, one Bucky Barnes is discovered. In the aftermath, Tony is thrown into a wall, Steve gets the Darcy treatment, Thor's tackled by a super soldier, and Bruce just wants to watch Dora the Explorer in peace. Nothing in the world wide web could've prepared Bucky for what his life just became, but luckily he didn't know that anyway. Oneshot, TonyxSteve


"Please…"

The voice was soft, a quiet sort of familiar.

"God, please be okay…"

The voice became insistent, anxious. There was a strain to it, an old tension wound tight and about to unravel entirely. He knew there was something about that voice, something he should recognize. It was familiar, the sound of friendship and camaraderie and back alley tag teams and one too many spins on the Cyclone at Coney Island. That sparked a bright flash of memory; payback for Coney Island in the form of a long wire, a train, a blast of energy, an outstretched hand, then an icy cold settling into his bones as someone screamed his name…

"_Bucky!"_

Suddenly he was awake, eyes wide, and he struggled to sit up but found he couldn't. He wasn't held to the bed, and he slowly realized he was too weak to move. His shaky breathing slowly steadied, and he gripped the sheets beneath him. They were white and starched and itched under his fingertips; he was in a hospital, something a vague look at what he could see of his surroundings confirmed. He was woozy and weak, clearly doped up on something. The world swam around him, but he managed to focus on one thing.

"Steve?"

Steve. Of course it was Steve. It had been Steve's voice calling him back from that icy hell, and it was Steve sitting next to him now, eyes anxious but thankful and a tight grip on Bucky's right hand.

"Steve," Bucky breathed out, "Jesus fuck, Steve, what the hell happened-"

"Oh God, _Bucky_," Steve's voice was fragile as cracked glass, and suddenly Bucky found himself being hugged-more like _engulfed-_by super soldier.

"Oof! Watch those muscles of yours, Stevey boy," Bucky squeaked out. Steve dropped him instantly, big blue eyes looking instantly ashamed, "Jeez, c'mon, what's with the puppy dog eyes? I'm alright. Takes more'n a little fall to get rid of me."

It was just a flash, but Bucky saw clear as day the guilt that streaked across his best friend's face. Steve had never been good at keeping his emotions to himself.

"What aren't you telling me?" Bucky frowned, examining Steve.

"Bucky…" Steve's voice went soft again, "You need to get some more sleep. They're giving you some more morphine now, and you're going to fall asleep again soon, but we'll talk when you wake up again, okay? And I'll be here when you do…I promise, Bucky, I won't ever leave you behind again."

"Jesus, Steve, I fell off a cliff, you didn't…" Bucky yawned, suddenly unable to fight the utter weariness in bones, "Didn't leave me, you wouldn't leave…me…"

And then he was out.

Steve crumpled in on himself then, and the large man would have looked oddly child-like if the sight hadn't been so heart-breaking. Tony rushed in the moment it was clear Bucky was unconscious, taking Steve in his arms. Steve gripped Tony's arms, clinging to him like a lifeline. Tony cradled Steve's head to his chest, his fingers stroking through Steve's hair as he murmured soft reassurances.

"Hey, shh, it's okay, it's okay baby, it's gonna be alright. I'm here, Bucky's here, everyone's okay…"

* * *

When Fury had off-handedly announced during a meeting that Bucky Barnes had been found, frozen but still alive, Steve had stood instantly, slamming his hands on the table with a shocked "_what?" _that had cracked the table in half, unbalancing the super soldier so that he fell forward and nearly gave himself a concussion.

Tony had ranted at Fury for an hour afterwards about how you don't just _spring _that shit on people and how if his boyfriend had a concussion Tony was going to pull every last cent from SHIELD funding and take Steve and move to Peru and have sex on Fury's desk and all sorts of other things he was never really going to do but delighted in threatening. Well, okay, he might have been willing to do the last one, but Steve was being a spoilsport about it, something about "that's inappropriate, Tony" and "not at work, Tony" and "Fury would kill us and I kind of like you alive, Tony".

Steve said "Tony" a lot. Tony didn't really mind.

Anyway, Steve hadn't had a concussion, but he'd had a severe case of shock for a good few days about Bucky, until shock had faded into extreme excitement. Fury had said it would take another two weeks to defrost Bucky, and for those two weeks, Steve was on absolute cloud nine.

The others hated it.

Well, okay, that wasn't exactly fair. They were of course perfectly happy that his friend was alive and that Steve was so happy. What they _didn't _appreciate was the return of Honeymoon Steve & Tony, or Stony as Clint had called them. Well, he'd called them that until Tony had started using it as an innuendo, "I'm feeling a little stony right now, aren't you babe?" insert wink and ass-grab here. Then Clint had promptly wanted to wash his brain with bleach for ever having thought it up.

Either way, that first month, the honeymoon phase of their couplehood, had been absolutely _insufferable. _They couldn't have just been the couple that always wanted to screw, either. Instead, they were always holding hands and cuddling and "could you get that for me, baby?" "of course I can, honey" and absolutely _endless _amounts of kissing. It had been nauseating for pretty much everyone involved.

Luckily, in the ten months since The Honeymoon, they'd toned it down; they still bantered excessively and went out of their way to touch each other, but they'd balanced out. Then, Steve had found out Bucky was alive. He'd been over the moon and his happiness had of course rubbed off on Tony, until they were both happy and bubbly and utterly intolerable.

It was funny, but not a single member of the team would have traded that for this.

Because Steve, their unshakable leader, was _crying. _Grief, happiness, or just an overload of emotion and stress and _oh my god my best friend is alive, _well, they weren't sure. They were behind the plexiglass, watching Bucky as he woke up, and when Bucky passed out and Tony rushed in, it was clear they didn't need to see any more. Natasha left immediately, pulling Clint behind her, and Bruce and Thor followed shortly. Though they teased the two about their relationship, they were grateful for it now; Steve needed someone to hold onto, to ground him, and Tony was more than happy to be that for him.

* * *

Over the next few weeks, Bucky found himself waking up more often, and staying up for a lot longer. Steve was always there, always talking to him, and it was through Steve that Bucky learned that they had both been frozen for 70 years. He'd thought it had been a weird joke, at first. But Steve had showed him things, a "cell phone" and a "television" and all the channels and _color _and all sorts of other things Steve couldn't really be faking.

Sometimes someone else was in there too, but he only ever came when Bucky was drugged out as hell. He would work on Bucky's prosthetic arm, eventually replacing the clunky old one entirely with a sleek, high-tech, incredibly detailed piece of machinery that functioned as well as, if not better than, his old arm. Including all the new functions and weapons available to him, Bucky would definitely consider it an upgrade, even if it took some time to get used to.

The guy was funny, always making witty little comments even though he thought Bucky couldn't hear him. After a few weeks of working on Bucky when he was semi-conscious, he started rambling. At first it was just sort of nonsense words, but then he realized Bucky could probably hear him, so he started actually talking to him. He talked a lot about the Avengers, the team Steve had vaguely mentioned a few times. The guy apologized once, said something about being used to talking to someone while he worked now.

Bucky didn't mind though; he listened while the guy talked about his work with Bruce, another scientist that had even helped a bit with the designs for Bucky's arm. Apparently he was a great guy, but do be careful, because this Bruce also had absolutely devastating anger management issues.

Then there was Thor, who the guy confided was his favorite, well, second-favorite, "obviously". Thor was apparently enthusiastic and energetic as hell, always up for a fight or a party, and could drink the entirety of SHIELD under the table. Bucky didn't know what SHIELD was, but this Thor sounded like fun. Then the guy added, almost as an after-thought, that by the way, Thor was also a Norse god that could summon lightning, had a freakishly large hammer that no but him could lift, and he could wield it with enough force to crack your skull open. So, yeah, watch out for him, too.

There was Clint, who the guy referred to as Hawkass, Legolas, or Katniss depending on his mood. As snappy he was about the guy, there was as much friendly affection in there as he had with the others when he described the crafty archer that liked to hide in his vents. This Clint apparently never missed a target, had plenty of hand-to-hand skills, and was a master assassin of SHIELD along with his partner, Natasha.

Natasha, the guy warned, was drop-dead gorgeous and if you didn't watch out, you'd be the one dropping dead. He apparently wasn't even entirely clear himself about what exactly her specific skill set was, other than "fucking deadly", but it seemed to usually consist of guns, knives, and mixed martial arts.

So, basically, they could all kill him with a flick of their finger.

In spite of all the apparently rampant deadliness, Bucky wasn't all that opposed. So when he returned to consciousness and Steve asked him if he wanted to move in with them later that week while he was getting back on his feet, Bucky said sure. Then, the conversation tilted towards Steve's dame again.

Some girl named Toni; Bucky had found out about her relatively quickly, seeing as Steve could barely keep his mind off the dame for a couple of minutes, much less the three weeks Bucky had been in recovery. Steve had said her name once for something, and Bucky had heard the little lilt of pride in his buddy's voice and the shyly happy look in his eyes; his Stevey boy had quite a crush, that was pretty obvious.

So he'd asked who Toni was, and Steve's face went a wild shade of red as he stammered out some sort of cop out answer. Bucky hadn't pushed too much about the nature of their relationship-he'd help Steve actually get the courage to make a move on the dame later-and instead asked what Toni was like.

And hadn't _that _been something.

Because off Steve had gone, talking for hours about how Toni was Howard Stark's kid, so Toni had grown up in the spotlight, always being judged and pressured to be just like Howard, but how instead she had turned out so much better, because Toni was "incredibly smart and unbelievably talented and crazy funny", that she had had some rough experiences, including a kidnapping in Afghanistan and plenty of near-death experiences with the Avengers but that Toni always managed to find a way out, to cut the wire and still save the day, whatever that meant.

Jesus H. Christ, and Bucky had thought Steve had it bad for Peggy.

This was a whole new level of holy hell, but surely even a dame like little miss amazing couldn't be out of Steve's league. Because in spite of the fact that, technically, the guy was pushing 90, even in the future the serum had done good work on his friend. He was now quite tall, broad-shouldered with just the right amount of muscle, and underneath the muscle he was a loyal and brave and all-around great guy; no way even this wondrous Toni Stark dame could resist…especially if Steve had a wingman like Bucky.

* * *

When Steve opened the door to the Avengers Tower, Bucky's first thought was pretty simple.

_Chaos._

A guy wearing shades was hauling ass towards them, and he shoved past them out the door. Coming right at them now, apparently following shades guy, was a huge green…_thing,_ running around covered in purple paint. A very large, broad-shouldered blonde guy was by the door too, holding a brunette under his arm protectively and waving a hammer to keep the green thing back, declaring "We are not your enemies, Banner, but should your destruction aim itself at Jane I shall not hold back!" the brunette was tugging the blonde away, but a dark-haired, rather voluptuous woman darted out from behind them both, aiming for the green thing with a small black device.

Steve grabbed Bucky and yanked him out of the green thing's path, but because of this the green thing charged past them and the dark-haired woman missed the green thing entirely. Instead, she ended up jamming the black device into Steve, who twitched violently before falling to the ground with wide eyes. At that, a mechanical red and gold suit shot out from down the hall, skidding to a halt over Steve. He checked on Steve, who seemed surprised but okay, before rounding on the dark-haired woman with a very loud, very pissed, "What the actual _fuck, _Darcy?!"

The woman, Darcy, didn't have time to respond before shades guy dove back inside with some harried comment about "civilians, fuck fucking civilians, bad plan", followed by the green thing. Upon seeing the green thing the mechanical suit took off, tackling it in the back at full force. They tumbled forward, and before the green thing could turn and smash down a fist on the mechanical suit, a gorgeous redhead stepped out from down the hallway. She waved a remote, declaring in a deadpan voice, "Dora's on."

The green thing perked up excitedly, snatching the mechanical suit and hurling it off of him, flinging it into a wall before racing off down the hallway, chanting "Dora! Dora! Dora!" in a very deep, extremely creepy voice. Steve was standing shakily now, and, having seen the suit get thrown into a wall, took off in that direction. He tapped on the faceplate, and to Bucky's surprise, it lifted to reveal a tousled, beaten looking guy inside.

He looked pretty dazed, and he shouted down the hallway, "You fucking asshole, Barton, if Bruce damaged the new suit I'll _kill _you-"

"Oh my God, are you okay?" Steve panicked, interrupting suit guy to examine him, worry written all over his face. The suit was pretty beaten up, but the guy inside seemed to shrug it off.

"Am _I_ okay? You're the one that got tazed. _Don't think I forgot about that Darcy!"_

The brunette under the hulking blonde guy turned to Darcy with pained exasperation on her face, "I cannot _believe _you just tazed Captain America."

"What? Me?" Darcy tried for innocence, "Who's Captain America? I'm not sure, it's was all such a blur…"

"Try the guy in a spangly America-themed spandex suit!" the guy in the mechanical suit shouted with a huff of offense.

"To be fair, I'm not wearing that right now," Steve chuckled, "No need to take offense."

"To be fair, she just tazed my boyfriend, that is the highest of offenses."

"What?" Bucky tried to question the weird phrasing, but no one was really listening to him, because at the same moment he tried to ask, the redhead popped back into announce that "the Hulk has been contained", whatever that meant, and everyone sighed in relief.

"Thanks for not ripping off the faceplate again though," the mechanical suit guy was saying. Which would have been a normal comment, but they were looking at each other weirdly, "I appreciate that, really. Making a new one every time you have a panic attack is getting to be a pain in the ass."

"I reserve the right to check if you're alive by any means possible," Steve just shook his head, his tone serious but his eyes going all weird…like, soft, but sort of…playful. Bucky frowned. What was going on?

"You worry about me too much," suit guy shot back, extending a mechanical hand to Steve. Steve took it, helping extract the guy from the indent he'd made in the wall.

The suit guy's eyes were doing that same soft-but-playful thing as Steve's, and, okay, seriously, what was going _on? _What about that Toni girl? Bucky wasn't blind, he _knew _Steve had a thing for the dame. Yet, Steve kept _talking _and making those _faces _and he had that _look _in his eyes and _what was going on here?_

"You just like to make me worry," Steve smiled.

The suit guy was clearly out of the wall now and no longer needed assistance, but Steve hadn't dropped his hand. Bucky tried to kinda wave his own hands a little, maybe break Steve out of his trance or whatever the hell was going on over there. Nothing.

"I," suit guy declared with a wide grin, "Do no such thing."

"Ever the hero," Steve murmured affectionately. Bucky tried telepathy, even squeezing his eyes shut to help the message along. Nothing. Instead, he opened his eyes to see suit guy stepping into Steve's space.

"You know you love it."

"You know I do," Steve was smiling and stepping forward too now, tugging on suit guy's hand to pull him closer.

_OhsweetJesusaretheykissing?_

"_Okay_, I'm confused!" Bucky blurted declaratively.

Steve and suit guy abruptly parted, suit guy with a laugh and Steve with very wide, almost owlish eyes.

"I didn't…oh my God, I can't believe I-Bucky! Uh, I just, this is-"

"Tony," suit guy grinned, waving a mechanical hand, "I'm a robot, by the way, only my face is human. The sex is kinky as hell-"

"_Tony!_" Steve blurted, blushing profusely as he shoved this…"Tony" back into the wall and rushed over to Bucky, "He's kidding, he's not a robot, he's just-"

"Just a _he?_"

"Well, uh…yeah," Steve scratched the back of his head like he used to when they were kids in school and he thought he was failing a test, and Bucky blinked to shake his mind out of the memory.

"I thought Tony was a _dame."_

"Me too, but hey, turns out I don't have boobs," Tony shrugged, extracting himself from the wall again, "Total buzzkill."

"Shut _up, _Tony!"

"Oh come on, it's a _little _funny."

"I agree," shades guy raised a hand, coming in with the redhead from down the hall, "Stark as a chick? I buy it."

"Fuck you, Barton, if Bruce broke my new suit, I swear-"

"C'mon, weren't you just claiming yesterday that it was 'Hulk-proof' now?"

"I-"

"Ladies, please," the redhead held up a hand with an exasperated sigh, "Barnes is probably confused enough, could you cut the chatter for a minute?"

"Thanks," Bucky found himself saying before he turned back to Steve, "Guess his name's not Antonia then, huh?"

"No, it's, uh, Anthony," Steve supplied.

"Too bad, Antonia Rogers had a nice ring to it."

Steve promptly turned bright pink, while Tony choked on air somewhere in the background. Shades burst out laughing, redhead snorted and couldn't hold back a smile, while the blonde guy blinked impassively.

"I do not understand."

The brunette under his arm whispered something into his ear with a smile, then he burst into booming laughter, "I see! It is humorous because he knows not that-"

"_Thor!" _the group collectively yelled, but it wasn't quite enough to stop the big guy.

"-the good Captain has already acquired a ri-_oof!_"

With that, Steve tackled Thor and they both went crashing through the back wall, into some sort of a rec room area.

"Do you wish to spar, Captain? Your timing is most strange-"

"Yep, sparring, sparring is great, let's spar, how about it Thor?" Steve was fumbling now, clearly trying to salvage something.

"Steve?"

Tony's voice was quiet, but it cut through all the noise. Everyone fell absolutely silent as Tony walked towards Steve tentatively with big, wide eyes like a little kid on his first Christmas morning.

"What did Thor just say?"

"Thor?" Steve's voice squeaked, an odd sound from the big man, and his next words tumbled out rapid fire, "Who's Thor? Did he speak? I don't think so, I didn't hear him say anything, did you guys? Jane? No? Me neither, I think we should all just move on and-"

"But Captain, I did speak, I spoke of-"

And then Steve was tackling him again, both of them flying out of sight and further into the next room.

Tony sped off down the hall after them, his voice child-like, both pestering and brightly hopeful.

"Ring? Steve? Steve, did Thor say ring? Cause, Steve, I heard ring, I'm pretty sure Thor said ring,Steve, why did Thor say _ring-"_

The others were quick to follow, and the sound of their struggle to pull Thor and Steve apart could quickly be heard, even over Tony's insistent whines of "Ring? Steeeve! Why aren't you talking to me, Steve? I heard ring, Steve".

Bucky felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned to see an exasperated man in shades. He was in a crisp, clean-cut suit, and carried a bag of groceries with two packets of powdered mini donuts sticking out the top.

"I'm afraid this is one of their better days," the man sighed as he shifted his groceries, "And I was only gone 15 minutes. I should have known better than to take so long. I'm Agent Coulson, their handler. Welcome aboard, Sergeant Barnes."

There was a long pause, in which the man clearly expected to be let through, and Bucky found himself a little too shocked to move.

"You seem to have something on your mind."

"Uh, Agent?"

"Yes?"

"…I'm pretty sure my best friend is gay."

"It's okay, there's a website for that."

The man side-stepped him then, placing the groceries on the front table and following the sounds of aggressive shouting and fist-fighting down the hallway to where "the Avengers" surely were, leaving Bucky alone to wonder what the ever-loving hell a website was.

* * *

"So you're...homosexual?"

They were all sitting on the couch now, Bucky pacing in front of them. Tony was plastered up against Steve's side, mumbling something about a ring every once in a while, and Steve swatting him into silence when he did, something about patience being a virtue, to which Tony inevitably replied about not having any virtues anyway, so to just tell him already. It was weird, admittedly, to see some guy cuddling up next to his best friend, not to mention Steve with his arm protectively around the guy in return, in spite of the little bantering thing they were doing.

Bucky had gotten all of their names straight now; Jane had carted Thor away to explain the idea of "secrets" to him, Darcy had apologized to Steve again for tazing him before she retreated to the kitchen to avoid the shoe Tony threw at her, Bruce was still something called the "Hulk" but he was content watching a tv show called "Dora" in the other room. Natasha, Clint, and Agent Coulson were still in the room with him, Steve and this Tony guy.

Something about Tony looked familiar, too. He couldn't quite put a finger on it though; something about the beard, maybe? Had he seen it before. Either way, Steve was answering his question now, so Bucky put it out of his head.

"Gay's kind of the general term now, but yeah," Steve shifted uncomfortably, "But it's…that sort of thing, it's legal now. I mean, I'd love him even if it wasn't, but, y'know, it's actually legal."

"Marriage, even. You remember marriage. That thing. With a rin-_ow, _Steeeve, that hurt," Tony pouted childishly as Steve elbowed him. Steve ignored him and continued talking.

"People in the future are really open-minded about it, actually. I mean, there are a few that aren't, but Tony says that's their problem not ours, and they usually leave us alone anyway so it's not that bad," Steve was clearly rambling now, anxious and nervous and unable to shut his mouth, "I mean, we came out to the press and everything and they're okay with it now. Well, they follow us on dates sometimes, but everything they publish is cute and clean and Tony even keeps the articles even though he thinks I don't know-"

"Wait, what?"

"-and I just really hope you can accept this Bucky cause I love him but you know I love you too, you're my best friend, I don't know what I'd do if I lost you again, which is why I didn't want to tell you so soon, but Tony got thrown into a wall and I just kinda got caught up in the moment, but I think you two will really get along and I hope you don't mind because-"

"Christ, Steve, give me a _minute, _would you?" Bucky interrupted finally, his head beginning to swim the sea of Steve's jabber.

"Okay," Steve promptly shut up, but continued watching Bucky with his big, please-don't-kick-me puppy dog eyes.

While Bucky processed, Tony poked Steve.

"What do you mean, you _know?_"

"Tony, you hid it under the bed, it's not exactly hard to find."

"Oh yeah? Well, it's where you hide your Tony notebook!"

"You _saw _that?" Steve's face lit up a brilliant shade of red.

"It's under the bed, Steve, 'it's not exactly hard to find'," Tony stuck his tongue out, throwing Steve's words back at him.

"Why didn't you _tell me?"_

"Cause it's a notebook full of me," Tony chirped happily, "I like it!"

"You're not supposed to _see _it," Steve muttered, but Tony just looped an arm around Steve's waist and tugged him close.

"I," he punctuated each word with a kiss up Steve's neck, "Love. It."

"Tony," Steve might have meant to sound chastising, but it came out as more of an…encouragement. To put it bluntly, Bucky got to watch wide-eyed and horrified as his best friend basically moaned a guy's name.

"Are they always this…" Bucky grappled for the right word.

"Devilishly sexy?" Tony offered, for which Steve smacked him.

"Public?" Coulson sighed.

"Nauseating?" Clint supplied instead, making a disgusted face at their antics.

"Shameless?" Natasha offered dryly.

"All of the above," Bucky nodded, then, with a moment's thought, "Except the first one."

"Unfortunately, the answer is yes," Natasha sighed.

"Hey, your best friend thinks I'm gorgeous," Tony huffed to Bucky, offended.

"But _fortunately_, he's not just sarcastic, he's also rich as fuck, so we live in a gigantic tower and can strategically avoid watching them make out if we try hard enough," Clint pointed out, "And boy, do we try. Tony wonders why I stick to the vents."

"You!" something about the vent comment clicked, and Bucky spun on Tony.

Tony just raised an eyebrow, but Steve moved his arm in front of him in a blatantly protective gesture. He then realized Bucky was obviously not going to harm Tony, and seemed sort of embarrassed about it. Tony just smiled at Steve, clearly finding it cute. Bucky tried his best not to watch as he kept talking.

"You were in the hospital with me. You were working on my arm when I was drugged," Bucky remembered; that's where he'd seen the beard before.

"Surprised you remember, to be honest," Tony chuckled, "You were pretty out of it. Never said a word to me."

Bucky nodded, then shook his head, the idea of his best friend being _gay _hitting him again. A couple of weeks ago, the world he and Steve had grown up in…he'd have gotten arrested for it. Now they were kissing and cuddling and something about a _ring, _and...

"Jesus," Bucky breathed the word out, unsure if it was a curse or a prayer, "What, uh…what about…?"

Steve didn't seem to know what he was talking about. Funny how much time must have passed. For Bucky, it was just a few blurry weeks ago; for Steve, it had been at least a year, and such a crazy year that it probably felt like 20.

"Peggy," Bucky said at last, "What about Peggy?"

Steve went quiet. It wasn't quite a grieving quiet as much as deeply thoughtful. Bucky uneasily watched Tony's hand shift to rub circles on Steve's back. He wasn't sure if that was sweet or weird, though his gut was currently going with weird. At last, Steve spoke, certainty in his words making it clear he had given this thought before.

"I didn't love her the way I love Tony. I did love her; but not like this, not in the way she would have needed me to, had…everything not happened the way it had."

"How long have you…" _Liked dick _seemed like the wrong thing to say, so Bucky substituted, "Been together?"

"Eleven and a half months."

"Two months after you were unfrozen, then."

"Yeah. I…we didn't really get along well, at first," Steve ducked his head with a laugh. Then, almost more to Tony than Bucky, "He always thought it was because he reminded me of his father but…it was more because he reminded me of you."

"Okay, I'm working with you here Steve, you know you're always gonna be my best friend and all, if you're going to confess something here, to be honest, I'd really rather you kept it to yourself-"

"Shut up," Steve snorted a laugh, "I don't mean like that. I just…he was so confidant and witty, and he always seemed to know what to say and do when I was so lost and confused, and he reminded me of you, and…it stung. But then I got to know him, and I learned that he's just…he's unique. No one can compare, that's for sure. But…I think you'll get along, all the same."

Tony was smiling giddily now, and Steve was blushing into his lap.

"Look, I'm not gonna lie, it's a little weird to think about," Bucky leaned back at last, exhaling heavily, "But if you love the guy, I'll give him a shot. Besides, I'd want to meet any fool who thinks they're good enough for you."

"Bucky," Steve warned, but Tony just laughed.

"You're not looking for me, then. Cause I don't think that. In fact, I know I'm not."

"Tony," Steve started to protest, but Bucky stopped him this time.

"Nah," Bucky just grinned widely, "He's right. And I think I just might like this guy."

* * *

The next couple of weeks were sort of a blur. That Coulson guy had been right; that had been a good day. The Avengers seemed to attract weird, crazy shit-or maybe caused it, would be a better word, depending on the day-so they were through everything from alien attacks to deadly food fights to doombot battles in Central Park in the span of an average afternoon.

It took some getting used to.

But in the end, Bucky decided he kind of liked it. Their disasters were sometimes domestic, sometimes deadly, and always chaotic, but it kept him on his toes. And the thing was, when you fight for life next to someone one day and go shopping with them the next, there was a sort of bond you really couldn't ignore. Because yes, Clint was an annoying motherfucker and Natasha was scary as hell and Thor could be obnoxiously dense and Bruce was kind of terrifying as the Other Guy.

But not only did they all have a beyond intense loyalty to each other, it quickly became clear that they were so much more than their Avenger label would have you believe. Because Clint could be annoying, but he was also the only person who would watch action movies with Bucky over and over and over again, long after the others got sick of it. And yes, Natasha could be terrifying, but it was also hard to see her as a heartless assassin when you ran into her at 2am in the morning watching Friends and eating ice cream out of the carton. And of course Thor could be dense, but he also had deep troubles with his brother and was currently separated from his home world in a way that made Bucky ache with sympathy because, well, he wasn't exactly going home anytime soon himself. And sure, Bruce as the Other Guy could be disastrous, but Bruce as Bruce was quietly witty and keenly intelligent and gave the best comebacks to Stark's egotistical jabber, so it was pretty much impossible for Bucky not to like the guy.

Tony…well, Bucky's opinion of Tony was still a work in progress.

Because he was an alright guy, really. He had the same sense of humor as Bucky, knew all the good media to catch him up on the last 70 years ("hey, don't worry about it, I've already rode this memory lane merry-go-round once, I know what I'm doing"), and was actually pretty nice guy under all the razzle dazzle of his wealth and fame. Not that Bucky could object, really, since he was living in the guy's house…but under that, he was actually a good guy, too, so that was nice.

But there was still the fact that he was kissing his best friend.

And really, that was just nothing Bucky had ever prepared himself for.

As it turned out, Coulson had been right-something he'd learned was a common occurrence-there _was _a website for that. There were websites for a lot of things. It was lacking in the "so, you've been unfrozen 70 years after you fell to your death" department, but more than made up for it in the "your best friend is gay" department. He got plenty of useful information, and even more useless information (some of it rather nightmare-inducing, frankly). But something still felt off, so he kept his distance from Stark, and explored most of the place with Steve. Steve even showed him Tony's workshop once. The cars had instantly caught Bucky's attention, but Steve had been quick to tell him not to touch "Tony's babies".

"What, Tony never lets you touch one of these bad boys?" Bucky challenged, "C'mon Stevey, are you the woman here, or what?"

"I, well," Steve blushed, rubbing his neck nervously, "That's not how it works, Bucky, neither of us is 'the woman', we're both just…men. In a relationship. Unless you're talking about who-"

"Nope, definitely not, moving on," Bucky fast-walked away from Steve and that entire train of thought, "What's this do?"

There was a light of display of numbers and circles. One of them even had a little box with Steve's picture on it. Bucky inched forward.

"Bucky, don't, what if you break Tony's things?"

"Oh c'mon, it has your picture on it, it can't be bad-"

And alarm went off before he could finish, loud and obnoxious. The screens lit up bright red and flashed repeatedly, stunning both of them, something about 'unauthorized access' and 'user denied'. Tony was down the stairs in a flash, advancing on them with a glare.

"Did you let him touch my things?" Tony huffed to Steve, typing in a passcode with blinding speed. The alarms silenced themselves and the screens returned to their default blue, but Bucky couldn't stop gaping around, wide-eyed and dazed, waiting for it to happen again.

"Sorry, Tony," Steve mumbled, "Why did my picture make everything…?"

"Go bad?" Bucky supplied not-so-helpfully.

"It wasn't about what you touched, it was the fact that it wasn't me touching it," Tony shook his head, then, with a sly grin, "What, you don't know what that icon's for?"

Steve blinked widely in the universal sign for "clueless", and Tony tapped the icon.

Hundreds of images flickered on screen, all of Steve. About a third were Captain America shots, all heroic and proud, and the rest were from around the house. Often those were pictures of them cuddled up together somewhere, kissing or holding hands or just being cute. Steve pressed a kiss to Tony's cheek then, something about how he knew Tony was just a big old softie at heart, and Bucky stepped forward to look at the pictures with wide eyes.

Something happened, then.

Bucky wasn't entirely sure what it was, not really. Something about the pictures; the loving care with which they'd been collected over what was obviously a long span of time, the physical and clearly emotional intimacy they portrayed, maybe it was just how freaking _happy _Steve looked in every last one of the pictures. Whatever it was, something about those pictures clicked with Bucky. He kind of felt like he'd just been hit over the head with a stick.

Okay, so maybe it used to be illegal-it clearly wasn't anymore. And maybe it was a little weird to think about two guys going at it, but hey, he didn't have to, so what did he care? As far as their kissing and cuddling and general couple-ness…well, okay, it was still nauseating, but in the same way Steve and some dame constantly making out would be nauseating, because Steve was his best friend and he really didn't need to see where his best friend's tongue happened to travel.

It didn't _matter _if he was gay.

He was Bucky's best friend, and this Tony doofus made his doofus happy, and that was all that mattered. Bucky grinned suddenly, clapping Steve on the back.

"C'mere, buddy. We're gonna have a talk, you and me," he pulled Steve away and up the stairs, "So what's this I hear about a ring, huh?"

* * *

Steve was planning to propose to Tony on their one-year anniversary.

He claimed he had been planning to do so on his own just fine, thank you, but Bucky liked to believe he'd given that last little push. It was a collaboration, really.

Steve bought the ring and planned the date, of course, making sure to include all those little things Tony would appreciate. Something about a certain kind of flower, a certain table at a certain restaurant, and that it had to be at a specific time. No one was clear on the time bit since Steve was being dodgy and vague and "it's personal" about it, but Steve had insisted, so they went along with it.

Bruce prepared a bunch of fake tests and projects to kept Tony busy with all day in the lab so everyone else could get their parts done. Coulson and Natasha spent half a day intimidating the owner into giving them the table they wanted (apparently, on their first date, Tony had publicly molested Steve across said table, and the owner was not keen on a repeat), until they eventually just settled on paying the owner to have the restaurant to themselves for the night so there would be no more public indecency reports to file. Because, well, if they were being honest with themselves, a recently-engaged Tony was probably an excited-about-Steve-Tony, and an excited-about-Steve-Tony didn't like to keep his clothes on for extended periods of time. Or Steve's, for that matter.

Yes, it was better that they rented out the restaurant.

Coulson paid as a wedding gift, which was nice. Clint was being insistent about wanting to spy on them while Steve popped the question, so Natasha's second job was to keep Clint busy running around town all night on fake missions/"look, they're over there!" cop outs to keep him from interrupting the Big Night. Jane's job had been similar-keep Thor occupied-although the moans coming from their floor suggested she might have chosen different methods.

Bucky, of course, was calling the shots/giving pep talks as needed. Funny though, Steve didn't really seem to need the second part.

"Okay, buddy, you got this."

"Bucky, I'm not nervous," Steve tried to explain with a smile, but Bucky was insistent on doing his part.

"No, I'm serious, Tony's way into you, he's all in love with you and stuff, no way he'll say no, so just go in there, and-"

"Bucky," Steve stopped him at last, laughing, "I _know. _It's not like we never talked about it after Thor's slip."

"Really?"

"Really. We talked about it. We want to. I just told Tony he'd have to be patient for once in his life and wait for the right time, is all," Steve smiled.

"Well, that's anticlimactic," Bucky muttered, and Steve just laughed again.

"Trust me, nothing's anticlimactic with Tony," Steve said, a fond, almost far-off look in his eyes, "He'll still make quite a scene of it, I'm sure."

"You really are ready for this, aren't you?" Bucky gave him a sideways smile, "Who'd of thought, my little Stevey boy all grown up and getting hitched."

"Bucky…" Steve paused, almost unsure of whether or not to say something, "It…it really…it means so much to me, you know. That you could be here. I mean, obviously I'm not getting married right now, or anything, but…it means so much to me that you'll be there when I do. I missed you so much, Bucky, I'm so glad to have you back in my life."

"Glad to be back," Bucky grinned, throwing an arm around his friend's too-wide shoulders, "Y'know what I miss? When I could tuck you under my arm like the little squirt you were. Jeez. Now c'mon kid, or you're gonna miss your own engagement."

With that, he steered Steve out the door to where Tony was waiting. They all respectfully let the couple be for the night, though they anxiously awaited their return. They fell asleep watching movies sometime around midnight, only to be awoken at 2am when the door slammed and Tony burst into the room shouting, "I'm fucking _engaged, _bitches!" Steve attempted to shush him, but didn't manage much before Tony grabbed his face and kissed him silent.

Tony, apparently, had said yes.


End file.
